Is Aspartame Safe? What does science say and what are gossip?

Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that is about 200 times sweeter than sugar and, unlike stevia, does not leave that bitter taste in your mouth. Since you need 200 times less aspartame to sweeten a beverage or dessert than you need sugar, aspartame is also considered a calorie-free sweetener.

In addition, aspartame is decided by everyone who is on a diet and wants to limit their caloric intake because it is a sweetener that does not raise their appetite levels, increases neither glucose nor stimulates insulin secretion and contributes to reduced caloric intake.

Aspartame is not heat-stable, so if added to hot drinks or foods before heat treatment, it will lose its sweetness.

Aspartame as an E-ingredient

As mentioned earlier, aspartame is an artificial sweetener, and on declarations we can recognize it as an additive under the E951 label. It is this E-label that underlies all the fears that exist in public about aspartame.

However, if we know that there are over 1500 E-numbers in our diet and that their E-mark is a safe use sign (the European Union declared them safe for consumption and assigned an E-number to them) then we would stop fearing aspartame.

What happens to aspartame in the human body?

The human body effectively and completely hydrolyzes (digestes) aspartame. The substance is briefly found in the human body and does not accumulate (Magnuson et al). Aspartame is broken down into 50% phenylalanine, 40% aspartic acid and 10% methanol. All three of the ingredients that are broken down by aspartame are found in very common foods in the human diet, such as tomatoes, milk, eggs and meat.

The acceptable daily intake of aspartic acid in the diet of most people is 60 times greater than what can be converted from aspartame. For phenylalanine it is 35 times higher. A glass of tomato juice contains 6 times more methanol than the same amount of sweetened soda aspartame.

The studies did not establish toxicity and did not increase the plasma concentrations of methanol, formic acid or phenylalanine after consumption to 50 mg / kg aspartame daily. This is the equivalent of about 17 cans of diet sodas for the average person of 70 kg.

Therefore, aspartame is broken down in the human body into harmless ingredients, which are found in much larger quantities in other commonly used foods.

Is Aspartame Safe?

When it comes to the toxicity of aspartame, the damage it can do to the body in a short time before it is broken down into the above ingredients should be taken into account. Take, for example, a “diet” carbonated beverage containing on average 50-125 mg of aspartame.

The allowable daily intake of aspartame is 40-50 mg / kg body weight according to the guidelines of about 90 health organizations such as: World Health Organization (WHO), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), etc. .

Take a Diet Coke drink containing 125 mg of aspartame and the lowest daily intake of aspartame 40 mg / kg, a woman weighing 50 pounds can drink 16 cans of Diet Coke drink without the harmful effect of the drink.

If we take the maximum daily intake of aspartame 50 mg / kg and Coke Zero containing 58 mg aspartame per can, a man weighing 80 pounds can drink 68 cans of this drink without the harmful effects of aspartame.

Thus, it is completely impossible to reach daily the amount of aspartame that could be harmful to the body, and aspartame breaks down very quickly and does not precipitate in the body, there is no danger of its accumulation and cumulative damage.

EFSA mandates that information on each component must be re-evaluated annually to take into account the latest scientific findings on each ingredient. Year after year, the conclusion is the same: aspartame is safe for human use, including children and pregnant women, while taken within the allowed daily intake.


Aspartame is one of the most studied food ingredients. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one of the most influential food safety organizations, has declared aspartame "completely safe".

Can it be sensitive to aspartame?

Headache, nausea and weakness are the most common symptoms complained of by those who feel they are sensitive to aspartame. However, a number of studies have addressed the potential sensitivity of aspartame and there is no confirmation that this type of sensitivity exists.

A study conducted by Sathyapalan et al. made a comparative study between a group considered insulin sensitive and a group that did not record this type of sensitivity. The groups were given aspartame and placebo and informed that they had received aspartame both times.

The group considered sensitive responded both times, stating that there were symptoms. At the same time, biochemical analysis of urine and blood showed no deviation in aspartame metabolism between the groups.

As the study concludes, a group that is considered sensitive to aspartame has a psychological reaction to aspartame, even when they just think they are consuming it and are actually consuming a placebo. Probably the credit for this paranoia can be attributed to the aspartame attack that has been in the public eye for a decade.

Conclusion

Aspartame is the most popular artificial sweetener in the world, and intake of a dose that may be harmful is completely impossible for any adult.


Therefore, the next time someone advises you to "avoid harmful aspartame", feel free to tell him or her that you would rather choose Cola Zero than the one loaded with plain sugar that has no doubt about its extreme harmfulness.